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This Week in Latin America: Mexico’s Union Trouble
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered to your inbox every Monday. Education Reform in Mexico: The CNTE teachers’ union says it will not return to classes today for the start of the new school year. Union members have for months been protesting an education reform package that would require teacher evaluations and curtail the practice of members purchasing or inheriting teaching positions. … Read more
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Chile’s Unlikely Energy Success Story
Just five years ago, Chile was in the midst of an energy crisis. Argentina had stopped sending natural gas across the Andes, and the threat of blackouts and energy rationing was real. Energy prices were among the highest in the region, the sector was dominated by a handful of monopolistic utility companies, and the private … Read more
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Argentina’s Quiet (Giant) Step Against Corruption
With anti-corruption efforts making noise throughout the hemisphere, Argentina is quietly on the brink of a major victory. A draft bill that would change the way the country prosecutes malfeasance seems like a simple fix. But if passed, the legislation could have a major effect on the way businesses treat – and crackdown on – … Read more
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What Puig’s Olympic Gold Really Means for Puerto Rico
On Saturday afternoon, I was sitting with my blanket gripped tightly to my face as my boyfriend patiently repeated (for the fifth time) the difference between a game and a set. Like many other Puerto Ricans, it was the first time I had watched tennis, and I kept forgetting the rules. For the 8 million … Read more
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This Week in Latin America: Closing Ceremony
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered to your inbox every Monday. The Games: The Rio Olympics continue this week, with the closing ceremony set for Sunday. While some observers say the organization of the games could have turned out worse for the hosts, security and sanitation issues have so far plagued the Summer Games. … Read more
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Why the LGBT Community Will Remember Rio 2016
If you’re looking for signs that LGBT inclusion in the sports world is on the rise, the Rio 2016 Olympics are a good place to start. Despite concerns surrounding the host city, the competition itself has gone off (mostly) without a hitch; for LGBT people in Brazil and around the world, it’s been downright monumental. … Read more
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BNDES Helped Save the Olympics. But Is it Hurting Brazil?
Corrections appended below Updated 8/17/2016 New leadership atop Brazil’s massive national development bank is unwinding a decade of rampant lending that fed large conglomerates and strained the country’s finances. Over the past half-century, Brazil’s Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social (BNDES) built huge power plants and highways through the industrial southeast, aided social programs in the … Read more
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This Week in Latin America: Colombia’s Peace Campaign
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered to your inbox every Monday. Colombia’s Peace Campaign: Colombian officials are preparing for the end of hostilities with the FARC despite indications that many in the country oppose a proposed peace deal. Government, FARC and U.N. representatives will today begin verifying 23 “concentration zones” in which the guerrillas will remain for … Read more
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Despite Pope’s Comments, a Good Week for Trans Rights in Latin America
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) advocacy groups expressed disappointment this week after comments by Pope Francis were released showing the Catholic leader’s unease over the growing social acceptance of transgender rights. During a private meeting last week, the pope said the idea of teaching schoolchildren they can choose their gender was “terrible” and that … Read more
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A ‘School of Rock’ in Rio’s Biggest Favela
Kids from Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela are reaching new heights – literally. Equipped with grippy shoes, hand chalk and encouragement from renowned climbers worldwide, young people from the Rio neighborhood of Rocinha are increasingly taking to the city’s tallest mountains in search of recreation, thrills and, for some, a way to avoid the pitfalls … Read more
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Unseen Latin America
What do you want people to see when they think of Latin America and the Caribbean? In our next issue, we’re celebrating #LatAmUnseen – the essence of the region that you won’t see in postcards. Share your original photo on Twitter or Facebook by September 6 for a chance to appear in the next issue … Read more
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Eight Ways to Not Enjoy Rio During the Olympics
An amazing city, Rio de Janeiro can also be exasperating if you’re not prepared. The 500,000 foreigners visiting this month for the Summer Olympics will soon discover the challenges of life in the self-proclaimed cidade maravilhosa, from its world famous congestion to its quirky social norms. Here are eight ways for visitors to not enjoy … Read more
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Hey World, Let’s Cut Brazil Just a Little Slack
After being kidnapped by uniformed police in Rio on the eve of the Olympic Games, a young New Zealander proclaimed on Facebook that Brazil “is well and truly f***ed in every sense of the word imaginable.” Many others agreed, from the Australian athletes who arrived in their dorms to find overflowing toilets (and a fire, … Read more
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Infographic: The ‘Disastrous’ State of Latin America’s Prisons
Flames and plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the Juiz Plácido de Souza penitentiary in Pernambuco, Brazil on Saturday after a violent inmate rebellion left six dead and at least 11 injured. Local news outlets reported several possible causes for the incident, but severe overcrowding was almost certainly a factor: the prison, built … Read more
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Speaking Guaraní, Don Quixote Rides into Paraguay
Don Quixote is riding into Paraguay, but he’s not just tilting at windmills. The idealistic knight from La Mancha has a new quest: to defend the indigenous Guaraní language. The first-ever Guaraní translation of Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel Don Quixote was completed in June by a team of four Paraguayan scholars who labored eight years … Read more
